Suit Filed Over Birth Control Coverage

July 20, 2000|By TAMAR LEWIN The New York Times

In a case that could have broad impact on contraceptive coverage nationwide, Planned Parenthood filed a class-action lawsuit Wednesday charging that a company whose health insurance plan covers most prescription drugs, but excludes contraceptives, is illegally discriminating against its female employees.

"It's sex discrimination when male employees get their basic health care needs covered by insurance, but women are forced to pay for their own," said Gloria Feldt, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

The case, brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, was filed in federal court in Seattle on behalf of Jennifer Erickson, a pharmacist at the Bartell Drug Co., and all other female employees of the company, which operates 45 drugstores in Washington.

Erickson, who spends more than $300 a year out of pocket on her own contraception, said she had become increasingly troubled by the inequity as she had to tell women who came to the store that their insurance would not pay for contraceptive prescriptions.

"Every single day, I'm processing prescriptions and telling women that their pills aren't covered," said Erickson. "Sometimes, they walk away from the counter and say they can't afford it. It really makes you sad, and then you realize your own company doesn't cover it either."

Last summer, Erickson said, she wrote to the human resources department asking that contraceptive coverage be added to the company policy, and was told that it was not something the company felt it should cover.

Mike McMurray, Bartell's vice president for marketing, said the company had worked hard to provide the health benefits its employees consider most valuable. "No medical benefits program covers every possible cost," he said, going on to add that Bartell, for example, does not pay for infertility drugs, Viagra or cosmetic surgery.

The issue of contraceptive coverage has been a rallying point for women's rights activists for several years -- especially since many employers who do not pay for contraception moved quickly to provide coverage for Viagra, which, at almost $10 a pill, is used to combat impotence.

While almost all traditional indemnity insurance plans provide coverage for some prescription drugs, only about half cover any of the five contraceptive methods available by prescription -- oral contraceptive pills, the intrauterine device, Depo Provera, Norplant, and the diaphragm -- all of them prescribed to women. And only about a third cover the pill, which costs about a dollar a day. Even among HMOs, which offer the most comprehensive coverage, only 39 percent cover all five methods, and 7 percent do not cover the pill.

As a result, a study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute found, women of reproductive age typically spend 68 percent more on out-of-pocket health care than men.

Since April 1998, 13 states have passed laws requiring that private insurance plans that pay for prescription drugs must also include contraceptive coverage: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Vermont.